This is a scholarly and stimulating study of settlement and expansions on the frontier lands in Canada and Argentina during their 'Golden Years' of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Jeremy Adelman challenges many of the assumptions made about the economic 'success' of North America and the 'failure' of Latin America. Based on extensive primary research in Argentina, Canada, and Britain, Dr Adelman's book points to the central importance of property relations in economic history. The distribution, control, and use of land, labour, and capital shaped these emerging economies. At the centre of the analysis is the development of family farming in Canada, and large estates in Argentina. Each system presented opportunities and posed costs - Argentine estates proving more efficient than hitherto argueed, while Canadian farms involved high social and economic costs. The approach taken here suggests directions for future research for comparative historians.
This is a scholarly and stimulating study of settlement and expansions on the frontier lands in Canada and Argentina during their 'Golden Years' of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Jeremy Adelman challenges many of the assumptions made about the economic 'success' of North America and the 'failure' of Latin America. Based on extensive primary research in Argentina, Canada, and Britain, Dr Adelman's book points to the central importance of property relations in economic history. The distribution, control, and use of land, labour, and capital shaped these emerging economies. At the centre of the analysis is the development of family farming in Canada, and large estates in Argentina. Each system presented opportunities and posed costs - Argentine estates proving more efficient than hitherto argueed, while Canadian farms involved high social and economic costs. The approach taken here suggests directions for future research for comparative historians.
Introduction: the dynamics of frontier development. Part 1 Land use and distribution on the frontier: land use and distribution on the prairies - the political economy of settlement, the land market and speculation, land distribution, land use; land use and distribution on the Pampas - the political economy of settlement, land use, the land market and speculation, land distribution. Part 2 Labour on the frontier: labour on the Pampas - immigration policy, immigration 1890-1914, seasonal labour, tenancy; labour on the prairies - immigration policy, immigration 1890-1914, the hired hand, tenancy. Part 3 Capital formation on the frontier: agricultural finance on the frontier - agricultural finance on the Pampas, agricultural finance on the prairies, rural finance - conclusion; technical change on the frontier - machinery on the prairies, machinery on the Pampas; conclusion - the frontier legacy. Appendices: the 1895 Argentine national census; probate records from the archives of the Palace of Justice in Buenos Aires; probate records from the Regional Courthouse in Regina.
`a bold attempt to revise our understanding of how two important
frontier regions developed in the heyday of liberalism...The book
deals with big issues and is profoundly revisionist...Comparative
studies of this type are valuable for opening up research
themes...The study raises issues that urgently require more
attention...deserves a wide readership.'
Canadian Journal of History
`Adelman provides some interesting insights into the history of
Canadian and Argentinian banks and agricultural equipment suppliers
in Canada.'
Business History
`...an important contribution to the subject...'
Economic History Review
`...detailed, carefully argued, and well-written book...a study
that stands as a fine example of comparative analysis...an
important and exciting book, highly recommended to students of
agricultural and business history, of government ecomomic and
social policy issues, and of rural society. This work, backed by
valuable maps, figures, tables, appendices, and a well organised
and comprehensive bibliography, will help provide a truly
international perspective
on agricultural developments.'
Agricultural History
`it stands out for its challenge to long-standing assumptions
regarding agricultural development...Adelman's arguments are
convincing...The result of prodigious research, with a multitude of
tables and three appendices, Frontier Development is a highly
informative additon to the subject of comparative agricultural
development in Latin America and North America...the work offers a
valuable case study of areas where reasons for the decisions made
about land
use and labor structures challenge long-held interpretations of
success in agricultural frontier regions.'
The Historian
`This thought-provoking monograph will become essential reading for
comparative historians and social scientists working on agrarian
development and the history of areas of recent settlement ... the
novelty of this work lies in the thesis that similarities may have
been of greater relevance than differences. This is an excellent
piece of research that draws on new data to overturn established
theoretical assumptions and comfortable shibboleths in the
Argentinian and Canadian literature.'
Colin M. Lewis, London School of Economics & Political Science, EHR
Feb. 97
`This is a well-crafted and impressively argued comparative study
which will be of interest to historians and sociologists alike ...
sharp and scholarly study ... through his careful deployment of
data and analysis, Adelman successfully makes the case that 'the
synthesis of unfettered accumulation and bucolic prosperity of
independent workers was a myth', that the collective sum of
'rational' actions may have 'irrational' consequences, and that
'the deep
structures of history, and not people, determine events'.'
Dennis Smith, Aston University, Labour History Review, Vol. 61, No.
1, Spring 1996
`Adelman presents his case forcefully, with many novel details. He
is particularly interesting on the difficulties of prairie dry
farming.'
J.R. Ward, University of Edinburgh, The Historical Association 1996
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